


I met an Elf who wasn't there

by Keenir



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: ...a bit maybe, ...mostly, Gen, Missing Scene, Second Age, Third Age, This may turn into an anthology, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 13:50:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7107535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Though it is with shame and anger, Elves can speak about the Kinslaying.  But there are other Elves of whom nothing is spoken.  </p><p>During the film, Tauriel and Legolas cross paths with one such Elf, who long ago crossed a line.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EbonyKitty552](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EbonyKitty552/gifts).



> Thank you for the inspirations and help, EbonyKitty552.

"We thank you for your hospitality, but we must go," Legolas said, he and Tauriel having shared bread and drink with this lone Elf under this roof.  _Our horses were about to collapse, and even in full sprint it would have been too far to go on foot without lighting._

"I can't have that," their host said.  "We're within the territorial borders of Angmar.  And its dark enough out right now, that you both will be seen long before you can see your own hands in front of you."

"Our mission is urgent," Tauriel stated.  "We must go."

 _I would go with them, even at my age, but a part of me would consider that a betrayal, even with how Elves and Orcs **are,** particularly when the wefter regained his powers.  I'm pleased I care at all, even for strangers.  _Having considered the visiting pair of them for the entire meal, their host came to a decision and said, "A hundred or two years ago, children, I would have walked you up there as my guests, under my protection."

Legolas and Tauriel had their swords out blink-fast.  "Angmar is Orc," Legolas said.

Completely unsurprised, "It is."

"But you're an Elf."

"As I told you before when you asked my name, who I am has been lost to time and history.  I could tell you my name, but it would elicit no response from either of you.  It would be more meaningful for me to say my father-in-law was a close friend of Celebrimbor."   He who is their host sat down, the movement jostling a shoulder that'd never set properly.  "Had I wished you harmed, I would have stood aside and let you wander in the darkness."

Tauriel frowned at the punning - doubting he spoke only of it being night.  "Why do you care?" she asked, though not yet lowering her sword.

 _When the wefter and shaper returned, everyone fell under his sway.  Even my son Feanor the Little._   "I have been very long without caring, young lady.  At present, my Elvish kin are no safer for me than the Orcs, and they would tear me apart as they are."

"There are Men," Legolas said.

"Men die.  They are no better than Dwarves," said their host.

"You want us to stay here.  This could be a trap," Tauriel said.  "You could be lying about being in fear of the Orcs."

"If they know I am here, they no longer consider me worth the effort of even a lone Wargrider's blade.  This house has been here since the end of the First Age; I simply cleaned it and performed repairs."

"Why would you live so close to the Orcs?" Legolas asked.

A trace of a smile on their host's face.  "Your question tells me you have never felt your fea being pulled towards anyone.  But you're young, you have time."

"Not if the Orcs win."

_I could have him sit, and with him debate the nature of control and the will of a person vs a master.  But no._

"You could have restrained yourself," Tauriel said.

"In the way that Aegnor did," their host nodded.  "I could have, I suppose.  But that is a path I never took."

"You said your name did not survive - would we have heard of your accomplishments?"

"That would necessitate remembering _me at all_.  In this present Age, clearly it is underestimated just how much of a line I crossed in obeying my fea."

"Perhaps you were ensorcelled," Legolas suggested.

 _You're both so **young.**_   "I was not.  And in further answer to your question, young lady, the deed I consider my greatest, was rehabilitating the name of Feanor, even if only for a time - though ultimately, my son earned the title Master Of The Depths not long before it became fully unsafe for me to be nearer to Angmar than this house here.  Recovering one of the Rings of Power would have been near enough in glory to that, were it not for a small matter."  _The matter of the ring not surviving the dragon's gut._

The two younger Elves stood where they were, watching their host, their swords marginally lowered.

"I will let you know when it is undark enough for Elven eyes," their host said.  "Or would you prefer to carry torches that scream your presence to any Orc with eyes and beast with nostrils?"

Legolas looked to Tauriel, who replied with a look of her own that said she would follow his lead, he was, after all, her superior.  "You have an alternative?" Legolas asked him.

"In this darkness, I will tell you of the Ring of Power I sought, of the lives I saved and snuffed out in my pursuit of it.  And how, in the midst of that quest, I found my fea's match, in the daughter of Celebrimbor's friend."  Seeing his guests sheath their blades but not sit, he began, "Picture a face full of nobility and honor, beauty and strength; rendered low by capture.  One brow flowing down like a mudslide to all but seal in its eye, and the other brushed aside like a small annoyance.  His great chin broken and left to dangle.  This was her father, who sent us to kill the dragon and recover the ring."


	2. I know someone who knew someone who knew them well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nivon hears about an ancient Orc, which touches on a matter of power - the power over the Orcs.

"When I was new to this form," Nivon's father-in-law said to Nivon late one morning while the rest of the family slept, "when my flesh cried in discordant notes of pain, and my skin's many thin scabs cracked and bled more than once a week,at least once a day...  I was taken aside by an elder of the clan, a prominence second only to the priest, and his name was Anga - a bygone word the _iron_ of his mind had been and had re-become.  He had been shaped by Morgoth personally, and as such was one of a handful still remaining at that time."

"I would be honored to meet this Anga," Nivon said.

"You lie well; you would tremble in fear, as I did, even with his vast age then.  Rest in the knowledge that he perished in the Interregnum and will not be seeing with eyes or hearing with ears the news of the wefter's return."

_You're not the first to talk about some wefter guy in my earshot; but I'm going to get you to be the first to explain it._ "Who might this wefter be, that everyone in the community here is looking forwards to his setting foot back amongst them?"

Father-in-law said, "Even when I was an Elf, I knew of the wefter.  Admittedly, not by that name, so you can be pardoned for partial ignorance.   The seducer of the lord of all Númenor and thief of my great friend's finest work.  The wefter was and will again be the driver of all loyal bodies, his might evident upon the world."

"Sauron," Nivon breathed.

"Among other names," came the father-in-law's chuckle.  "Even now, you underestimate how many names there are for anyone - and particularly for him.  Mairon the Great is he.  Armies Summoner also, and Lie Killer."

"?" Nivon asked.  "He deceives and lies to everyone."

"And thus knows when anyone is lying, to him or to any of his devoted armies."

Even with only one noticeable eye, his father-in-law was watching him carefully now.  "I spoke too much too harshly - I forgot you met him," Nivon said.  _No matter what his loyalties, then or now, I never imagine its easy to discuss the person responsible for mangling oneself._

"I had that honor, yes."

The word failed to strike Nivon's ears as ringing of sarcasm or falseness or anything else that was not honesty.  "Honor?"

"My daughter, whom you called Mabba, is typical of her race - they have nothing with which they can compare the feeling when driven by the wefter.  But for Anga, the sensation of having such instruction and - and the perfect knowing of one's special place...he likened it to the Awakening itself."

"And you?" Nivon inquired.

"Yes, you?" Mabba mumbled blearily from where she stood; even weary and tired, she had snuck up on the room and them, standing in ambush practice. 

"I was an Elf," Mabba's father said.  "We pride ourselves on our kinship to the stars."

Nivon nodded.

"But each Elf is a lone star.  When we march in formation, our armies can make constellations strengthening our inner and outer selves; when under the guiding power of the wefter, I feel part of a constellation always, in battle, in waiting, and even at meals.  Only one thing can end that sensation."

_Sauron's death in battle.  And I was there.  I did not see it, but I felt the massive wave of his passing; everyone did._   "And yet you think he will be back."

"You or I or Mabba would be dead," his father-in-law told him.  "But he, he is no Orc or Elf.  He is as far above us, as we are above the hares of the field."

Mabba asked Nivon, "Didst you think our priest was the only one who had faith in the wefter's power?"

_What do I have to do?  How can I convince you that Sauron isn't coming back?_  was what Nivon wondered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glossary:  
>  _Anga_ \- derived from "anga" (iron), in [Old Sindarin](http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/oldsind.htm).  
>  _Mabba_ \- derived from "mab" (hand), in [Doriathrin](http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/doriath.htm). It should probably be Maba, and probably is - I'm thinking Orcs are very flexible linguistically (one of the complaints Elves make, is that the Orc language changes so bloody much, picking up words from everywhere)  
>  _Nivon_ \- derived from "nivon" (forward, westward), in Doriathrin. I know, what kind of parent would name their kid after where all Elves hope to go (with or without a certain Hobbit) ?  
>  :)


End file.
